While Arkansas and Texas A&M will battle on Saturday night to potentially determine the SEC West’s second-best team behind Alabama, LSU and Auburn will fight for survival in the division in a game that will kick off three hours earlier.

Last week’s matchup between SEC West coaches on the hot seat featured the Aggies’ Kevin Sumlin going up against Auburn’s Gus Malzahn. This week’s tussle between Malzahn and LSU’s Les Miles feels even hotter.

Despite allowing two touchdowns within a 40-second span late in the fourth quarter of its 23-20 home win over Mississippi State last week, LSU is 2-1 and on a two-game winning streak. Plus, the Tigers’ offense has seemingly played better under quarterback Danny Etling, who replaced Brandon Harris two games ago.

Meanwhile, Auburn remains in a quarterback quandary. Despite throwing for only 126 yards on 27 attempts in AU’s 29-16 home loss to Texas A&M last week, Sean White remains the Tigers’ starter at QB.

Saturday night’s losing coach will be in an incredibly tough spot, so this could be the last Malzahn-Miles matchup we see for a while. If Malzahn loses, he will already have three losses, the same number of defeats LSU had entering last year’s regular-season finale against Texas A&M, which the Tigers won to presumably save Miles’ job.

Miles has a 2-1 edge over Malzahn in previous LSU-Auburn matchups. In 2013, Jeremy Hill ran for 184 yards and 3 touchdowns as LSU rolled 35-21.

Two years ago, the last time LSU visited The Plains, Nick Marshall passed for 207 yards and 2 TDs and ran for 119 and two more scores to lead Auburn to a 41-7 victory. Last season, after Auburn’s Rudy Ford said that stopping Leonard Fournette “shouldn’t be difficult,” the star running back ran for 228 yards and 3 TDs on 19 carries – a whopping 12 yards per attempt – in LSU’s 45-21 win.

So the so-called “Buyout Bowl” features two teams that know they can run but aren’t totally sure if they can pass. At least LSU has won two games in a row. With its schedule, Auburn will struggle to win two straight games all season.

What are Auburn fans saying about LSU? Do they feel their team will win?

As far as talk actually related to on-field activities, Auburn fans seem confident about two things and concerned about two things.

CONCERNS

1. Auburn fans’ greatest concern is Fournette. The junior running back, who has been battling a left ankle injury, rushed for two touchdowns last week, but he also fumbled twice. Meanwhile, AU’s rushing defense under new coordinator Kevin Steele has been below average. Auburn is eighth in the SEC is rushing yards allowed per game (149.3) and yards surrendered per attempt (3.9), despite facing no one near the caliber of Fournette. Plus, LSU has looked better on offense with Etling, who’s completed 25-of-44 passes this season for 315 yards. If the Tigers can somehow contain Fournette, forcing Etling to beat them would give Auburn a much better chance to win.

2. The other concern regards LSU defensive lineman Arden Key, who already has five sacks in just three games. Left tackle Robert Leff – and the rest of Auburn’s offensive line for that matter – struggled to keep Myles Garrett (two sacks) away from White even when they knew the A&M defensive end was usually coming at them from the right side. The problem with Key is that new LSU defensive coordinator Dave Aranda likes to move him around so much, Auburn might have a tough time knowing where he’s coming from. For what it’s worth, Malzahn considers Garrett and Key two of the best pass-rushers in the country. Thankfully for Auburn’s sake, they’re not on the same team. In the meantime, AU must find a way to prevent going backwards on offense. The Tigers are allowing an FBS-leading 11 tackles for loss per game and an SEC-worst three sacks per contest.

AREAS OF CONFIDENCE

1. Auburn knows it can run on any team, even against SEC foes. Through three games, the Tigers lead the conference with 785 rushing yards, including 236 last week against Texas A&M. Despite being fifth in the league against the run, LSU is still allowing more than 100 rushing yards per game. With two straight 100-yard games, Kamryn Pettway has given Auburn stability and production at the running back spot, which has been important in light of the fact that White is apparently still finding his way.

2. Auburn fans also believe their team’s defensive line has been a strong suit. Even though Carl Lawson has brought down the opposing QB just once so far this year, Auburn has totaled five sacks as a team. Montravius Adams, who has been effective at bringing pressure up the middle, has five of the Tigers’ 27 QB hurries. Plus, freshman Marlon Davidson has looked good opposite Lawson. LSU has allowed just three sacks so far.